The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments (Routledge Advances in Game Studies) by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2015-06-04T22:00:00+00:00

9 Exploring the Limits of Play

A Case Study of Representations of Nazism in Games

Adam Chapman and Jonas Linderoth

INTRODUCTION

“You Jewish pig, I shall definitely find you” was called out harshly in German and Danish after the children while they were running in the dark trying to avoid getting caught by the Nazis.”

(Ekstra Bladet 2003, our translation)

The previous quote is taken from a newspaper article describing a game that was played by a group of Danish and German Scouts during a 2003 weekend visit to a school in Lintrup, Denmark. During a night-time activity, the school became a “concentration camp” using props such as Nazis flags and the words “Arbeit macht frei” projected onto the school wall. The students who hosted the event were either cast as Nazis or as “helpers” wearing the Jewish Star of David. Organizers defended the criticised activity in various ways, pointing out it was just a game, it portrayed history and it could de-dramatize a sensitive subject (Svanevik 2003). Yet clearly, from the outcry the game caused, for many this was a process of dark play. In this chapter we analyze the limits of placing certain themes within a set of rules. By using Goffman’s frame theory (1974) as a lens for looking at the relationship between controversial topics and play activities we tease out a micro-sociological understanding of “the limits of play”. This idea is then applied to three different World War II games. On a specific level this analysis stresses a risk for whitewashing the history of World War II. On a more general level we suggest that limits to play entails three socio-cultural qualities. First, games seem to have an intrinsic, potentially trivializing property. Secondly, trivializations that risk controversy can be “saved” by frame transformations. Finally, this makes games a form of “value thermometers” in that they reveal information about norms and values on a broader social level.

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